


When a Mother Loves

by Androids_in_Metropolis



Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: 17 years old, Angst, Cute, Cutesy, F/M, Flu, Fluff, Gen, Influenza, Kid Fic, Moments, Mostly Fluff, Sickfic, Tumblr Prompt, motherly, prompt, sick JD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 22:19:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4116865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Androids_in_Metropolis/pseuds/Androids_in_Metropolis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JD needs nothing more than the mother he lost to fire in Texas years before. Veronica wants nothing more than to give that to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When a Mother Loves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Savannah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savannah/gifts).



“I just need to lay down, darling,” JD whispered as Veronica helped him into the back seat of his car, kissing his forehead and noting with growing concern that it seemed to be much too warm for the cool winter day. “I just need to sleep...I haven’t been sleeping well lately, that’s why,” JD kept saying, his voice cracking and his lips moving as no sound came out. He looked exhausted, his eyes fluttering shut and Veronica lay her cool, manicured hand on his fevered head, offering a cool relief to the heat that plagued him, settling the heachache building behind his eyes. 

Veronica bit her lip as she saw his breathing even out and his chest began to rise and fall to a rhythm that only his body knew. He looked so peaceful in sleep, none of the demons that plagued him in his waking life seemed to be there to interrupt his dreams. Of course he hadn’t been sleeping lately-There had been deaths in the school. There had been talk of stopping school all together until they could figure out what was going on, why students disappeared from their beds and then were found in the school with jaw breakers in their dead throats, little notes scribbled near them in an unknown script. JD wasn’t involved, he had promised Veronica that (and she trusted him) but he knew something...she knew that for sure. He knew a little about everything. 

Kissing his forehead she climbed from the back seat of his old, barely running car and started it up, the deep rumbling of the engine sending shivers up her spine as she pulled out of the school lot and started towards JD’s house. She knew his father wouldn’t be home. He hardly ever was these days...if he was it would be a shock. Veronica could deal with shock. What she couldn’t deal with at the moment was the wet coughing coming from the back seat of the car, and the pitiful whimper that followed. 

Being prepared to be shocked always pays off, as Veronica knew well enough, and as she pulled into the Dean’s driveway she spotted JD’s father’s red and black sports car, and saw that the lights were on in the house. It looked like they would have company that night, and it wasn’t going to be enjoyable for either of them. Gritting her teeth and preparing to be annoyed with Mr. Dean (she was pretty sure she was the only person who ever called him that, but then again, it had stuck) Veronica gathered herself and stepped out of the car, opening the back seat and waking JD so she could help him into the house. 

JD shivered even during the short walk to his doorstep, leaning heavily on Veronica though he continued to tell her that he just needed to lie down and she continued to say that he would get to do so as soon as they got into the house. It was, however, an empty promise as she learned soon as she unlatched the door and stepped over the threshold and into the entryway of the ugly mansion house JD was sad to call ‘home’. 

“Why, hello Dad!” Boomed Mr. Dean as soon as they had stepped (or stumbled in JD’s case) into the house, and he walked forward patting JD on the shoulder and winking at Veronica. He was the only living person Veronica could think of that could make a friendly wink look annoying and send shivers of anticipation up one’s spine. “And what might you two esteemed adults be doing here?” He asked, his tone both patronizing and painful. 

JD whimpered into Veronica’s shoulder, struggling to sit up straight and look his father in the eye so he could find some sort of reply and make him leave them alone. Of course, that would be wishful thinking, but hey, he was the king of wishful thinking. He used Veronica’s shoulder to help him stand up straighter, glad when she wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him out.

“Nothing, son,” he said, using the usual backwards language of their household. “Mom and I were just going upstairs to get some work done,” he supplied, nodding at Veronica though it hurt his head badly. He could feel his stomach sloshing around and he hoped they would be able to get around his father soon or some sort of karma might just take his old man’s shoes. “Could we scoot by then, son?”

“Well, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Dad!” Mr. Dean said jovially moving too easily to the side and giving the two teens right of way in an uncharacteristically easy manner. There was no riddle...he didn’t ask for anything in return. 

JD didn’t have much time to wonder over his father giving in so easily as he felt himself falling and saw his father drawing his foot back casually as he hit the floor hard, feeling all the air pushed out of his lungs and choking on his own spit as he tried to curl into a ball in some sort of weak attempt to make the pain that was coursing through his body stop. He could feel his stomach doing summersaults and his head was bouding a hole to his brain. Veronica was by his side in a moment, and he could hear raised voices and then feel someone lifting him to his feet and helping him up the stairs as the yelling continued sounding more and more one sided as they climbed higher and higher. 

“Are you okay?” he heard a voice (it must be Veronica, he thought, though he was having a hard time telling as his hearing seemed to be fading in and out of audibility) asking and a blurry face hovering above him as he was lowered onto his bed. He could feel her hovering over him and he reached up to touch her face, wanting to feel something more familiar than cotton sheets. He had his hand on her cheek, and rubbed his thumb under her eye, but he still didn’t know how to reply to her question. 

“No,” JD whispered, deciding it was the best answer to describe how he was feeling-Very not okay. He couldn’t exactly describe how he felt at that moment-Maybe wind swept, though there was no wind and he hadn’t even been outside in a while. He felt as if the air was still knocked out of him, and as if some cold breeze was whipping through his bony body leaving him frigid and shivering. 

“What do you need?” Veronica asked, sitting next to the bed and gently brushing the hairs away from JD’s eyes, letting her thin hand rest on his sweaty forehead. He was too warm, and too compliant...that couldn’t be good. Her tone sounded desperate and she knew it, and she hoped he knew it-Maybe she could get something more than a single syllable word out of him then. You cannot cease fire until you know what not to shoot at, as she had learned early on in her high school years. 

JD whimpered, letting his eyes remain shut at the end of a long, tired blink. He had been so tired all day, and now he knew he just couldn’t fight it any more. He wanted to let Veronica know where hurt, and what he needed (a nap) but his lips seemed thick and stupid, imposable to get to move in any way that wasn’t offensive to him. He wanted to tell her he was fine, but he didn’t even believe that himself, and knew his sharp girlfriend would pick up on the lie before he’d even told it. In the end he settled for grunting, and turning slightly to his side to hold her closer to him, burying his face in her stomach before falling quickly to sleep. 

\-----------------

Veronica remained seated, her chest rising and falling in rhythm with the prone body laced around her, JD’s once firm grip slask around her waist in the weakness of sleep. She was worried by now-No, she had been worried earlier...now she was terrified. JD’s breathing was too fast, his heart beating to quickly and against her. He was shivering, but the thin layer of sweat over his forehead did not go unnoted by her kean eyes. There was definitely something very, very wrong with her lovely boyfriend. 

Snaking away from JD’s grasp (an acquired skill) Veronica grabbed at the bedside phone, quickly dialing her best friend’s familiar number. 

“Martha?” she whispered into the receiver, fearing that she would wake Jason up from his sickly thin sleep. “Martha, I am so glad you’re home. Listen, I need you to check something for me. Ask your mom,” Veronica instructed as she heard her friend pick up. “I need you to ask your mom when to take someone to the hospital...no, not me, I’m fine. It’s JD-” pause. Veronica waited for Martha to calm down before continuing, “No, he’s just sick. He’s sleeping now, but he’s got a fever and he’s shaking and breathing real quick,” Veronica said, going through the notable symptoms systematically on her fingers. 

Soon Martha’s mother was on the phone and explaining that until JD asked to go, or it became an emergency Veronica should just stay with him and keep an eye on him, making sure nothing went wrong. After hurried goodbyes, and ‘thank you very much, Mrs. Dunnstock,’ Veronica was left to her own devices again, sitting next to the bed and watching her boy friend sleep, not feeling the usual calm that came with the sullen activity on hand. 

\-------------

“ ‘Nica, Veronica,” said urgently. 

Veronica woke with a start, wondering who was calling her name, and then wondering where the hell she was before the pieces began to fall into place inside her foggy, sleep ridden mind. She was at the Dean’s house, and JD was the one calling her name. Quickly remembering the events of the previous day she stumbled to her feet, making a mental note to never sleep sitting up again, and found JD curled in on himself if the middle of the bed, his hair sticky and clinging to his forehead with sweat. His breathing was harsh, and he continued to meaningly ask for her through gritted teeth. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut, though they flew open as Veronica lay her hand on his head, brushing the messy hairs away from his face and pressing her lips gently to his head. 

“I hurt so bad, ‘Nica,” JD mumbled, his voice barely audible above the nighttime sounds of crickets and some party that had been going on far too long. Veronica wondered when the last time he had called her by her name was...it hadn't been recently, that was for sure. Usually he opted for some type of endearment or slur, something that set her apart from other people in his mind, but not now. Now he was just a sick kid who needed someone to hold him. Now all he needed was his mom. 

Veronica’s heart flip flopped in her chest as she realized that that was one of the few things she just couldn’t give him; His mom back. His mom breathing. If she could have she would have done it already, in a heartbeat. It wasn’t an option though, so instead she decided she would play the part, dragging JD into a sitting position against her and kissing his cheek gently. Smoothing her hand across his arm, reassuring him she was there she began to to talk, just a faint whisper of words that all kids want to hear; ‘I’m here, Jason. I’ll always be here. It’s okay, Jason, you’re okay.’

Veronica was prepared for a long night after the first episode, and a long night she would get. JD woke up crying only moments after he had fallen asleep in her arms, his whole body shaking as he cried about some unknown pain and Veronica rocked back and forth, murmuring a mother’s words into his ear. She never found out what he had been crying over, and she never stopped wondering, either. 

Just as the sun was rising, sending a pink filtered light over the whole bedroom JD started awake, already gagging and his eyes welling with pained tears. It took only moments for Veronica to start to her feet and guide him quickly to his bathroom attached to the bedroom by a sliding door. As he knelt in front of the toilet, crying harshly as he tried to tell Veronica were hurt she came to her decision; It was time. They had to call an ambulance...she couldn’t drive him herself, not when he was like this, and she didn’t have the first idea of where to start as she knelt behind him, one hand on his back, the other wiping his tears away. 

“911, what’s your emergency?” 

\----------------------------------

The white lights shone glaringly down on the figure of Jason Dean, silhouetted against the hospital issue sheets, an IV hooked up to his arm. Beside him sat Veronica, once against sleeping sitting up, her head laying on her arms. She had waited next to him for well over two days now as he was treated for dehydration, exhaustion, stress, and severe influenza symptoms. He hadn’t woken for more than a moment yet, and it left Veronica feeling lonely and terrified for what might be happening inside his weak body. He looked pale under the light, almost see through, in fact. His hair was wild, looking impossibly dark against the white of the pillowcase under his head. There were dark circles under his eyes, framing where his lashes fell. 

Veronica was asleep when it finally happened-When JD’s eyes fluttered open and he began to look around, familiarizing himself with his surroundings and figuring out how he had gotten there. She was asleep when his frail hand reached for hers, tucking it inside his own. She was asleep as he smiled at her, recalling snippets of the night that had landed him in the hospital in the first place.

As she herself drifted into consciousness she felt his weak grasp on her hand, and looking up heard his first words in days…

“I fucking hate hospitals, darling.”


End file.
